Madam How and Lady Why eBook

Whereon Mr. Andrews, who seems to have been a very
sensible old gentleman, tells him all about his curiosities:
and then it comes out—­if you will believe
it—­that Master William has been over the
very same ground as Master Robert, who saw nothing
at all.

“So it is. One man walks through the world
with his eyes open, another with his eyes shut; and
upon this difference depends all the superiority of
knowledge which one man acquires over another.
I have known sailors who had been in all the quarters
of the world, and could tell you nothing but the signs
of the tippling-houses, and the price and quality of
the liquor. On the other hand, Franklin could
not cross the Channel without making observations
useful to mankind. While many a vacant thoughtless
youth is whirled through Europe without gaining a single
idea worth crossing the street for, the observing
eye and inquiring mind find matter of improvement
and delight in every ramble. You, then, William,
continue to use your eyes. And you, Robert,
learn that eyes were given to you to use.”

So said Mr. Andrews: and so I say, dear boys—­and
so says he who has the charge of you—­to
you. Therefore I beg all good boys among you
to think over this story, and settle in their own
minds whether they will be eyes or no eyes; whether
they will, as they grow up, look and see for themselves
what happens: or whether they will let other people
look for them, or pretend to look; and dupe them,
and lead them about—­the blind leading the
blind, till both fall into the ditch.

I say “good boys;” not merely clever boys,
or prudent boys: because using your eyes, or
not using them, is a question of doing Right or doing
Wrong. God has given you eyes; it is your duty
to God to use them. If your parents tried to
teach you your lessons in the most agreeable way,
by beautiful picture-books, would it not be ungracious,
ungrateful, and altogether naughty and wrong, to shut
your eyes to those pictures, and refuse to learn?
And is it not altogether naughty and wrong to refuse
to learn from your Father in Heaven, the Great God
who made all things, when he offers to teach you all
day long by the most beautiful and most wonderful
of all picture-books, which is simply all things which
you can see, hear, and touch, from the sun and stars
above your head to the mosses and insects at your
feet? It is your duty to learn His lessons:
and it is your interest. God’s Book, which
is the Universe, and the reading of God’s Book,
which is Science, can do you nothing but good, and
teach you nothing but truth and wisdom. God did
not put this wondrous world about your young souls
to tempt or to mislead them. If you ask Him
for a fish, he will not give you a serpent. If
you ask Him for bread, He will not give you a stone.